Last week was a rare occasion when the Prime Minister of the world's most populous democracy decided to speak to his people, fourth time in seven years since he took to power. The fact that he has spoken to the people so few a time is in itself a saddening fact, leaving apart the manner in which he spoke to the people, In Camera, and to a select chosen few.
It smelled clearly of more of a PR exercise than of a genuine desire of establishing communication with estranged nation bewildered at every day disclosures of newer scams of humongous proportions, supplemented by sheer show of arrogance, with an air of almost near total impunity. The pattern was very clear, scams were all very large in size, will carry on in spite of public uproar for a long spell of time, long enough to loot and hide the wrongly acquired wealth, with spokesperson of ruling fraternity coming on television camera to deny any wrong doing, till the time an unyielding court decide to intervene and then, under pressure of court government acting and same people again coming on the television camera, claiming the credit for the action which they were forced to take contrary to their earlier public posturing.
Prime Minister, who has been credited with being the first apolitical prime minister of the country, basking in the after-glory of the liberalization which was forced on the country on account of near-bankruptcy of failed governance given by the party which he now represents, has failed to reign in inflation. Now he says he has no magic wand. But then this people already knew, O learned one, did thou not know it when thou promised us with deadlines for inflation coming out twice. When he came out and made statement of CVC appointment, he claimed it was DOPT responsible, why can't CEO of Satyam claim that his CFO was responsible for all the mess?
His team got into act a day before the meeting of the PM with editors and they came on camera, in team. One spokesperson said, Prime Minister will decide when he wants to speak and what he wants to speak when questioned about rarity of his Public interfaces, other spokesperson was even funnier, when he decided to speak tangential to the questions asked stating that he will not be browbeaten to answer the new anchor's question, I was wondering if he will start singing some song next since he had decided that he will speak only what he pleased to speak about (thankfully, he didn't).
So the spokesperson says PM will speak to the nation when he wants to (four times in seven years) and the way he wants to and what he wants to (he may decided to even talk about giving cookery lessons, even when his ministers are spending retirements in the Jail on account of court actions). Then the PM says he meets the Congress president every week, thus making it clear, that contrary to what founding fathers of nation thought, he reports routinely to the person who actually made him the PM, not to the common masses who think they made him the PM. His mild manners disappears when he tells judiciary to stay within limits or CAG to stick to its limits.
He speaks to the nation and tells he was not aware of CWG bungling and the matters raised by ManiShankar Aiyar were merely ideological. Was he living in a different country then, do they not get newspapers in PMO and 10, Janpath and are they not watching News channels there? Thus the poor PM, bereft of any other mode of intelligence gathering, (possibly busy in collecting information about people who have recently caused them trouble, look around, the moment you are significant enough to cause significant trouble to significant few, skeletons start trembling out, ask Ramdev, Lalit Modi), was solely dependent on his minister to alarm him, who alas, provided, only ideological insights and therefore, the PM did nothing. It would be wrong to dismiss the PM as political novice, he understands it well when he says no one wants a mid-term election. One has to be blind to notice the temerity and tepidness with which the main opposition approaches the issue. Mani Shankar Aiyar comes out as the only main with clear sight and straight spine who speaks the truth. I would have loved to join a party in case this man decided to float it, alas, this is not to happen. He comes out to be too wise and too upright a man to be the prime minister in this country, such honesty makes one completely useless to people around. It still warms my heart to find that there are still men like Mr. Aiyar around.
It smelled clearly of more of a PR exercise than of a genuine desire of establishing communication with estranged nation bewildered at every day disclosures of newer scams of humongous proportions, supplemented by sheer show of arrogance, with an air of almost near total impunity. The pattern was very clear, scams were all very large in size, will carry on in spite of public uproar for a long spell of time, long enough to loot and hide the wrongly acquired wealth, with spokesperson of ruling fraternity coming on television camera to deny any wrong doing, till the time an unyielding court decide to intervene and then, under pressure of court government acting and same people again coming on the television camera, claiming the credit for the action which they were forced to take contrary to their earlier public posturing.
Prime Minister, who has been credited with being the first apolitical prime minister of the country, basking in the after-glory of the liberalization which was forced on the country on account of near-bankruptcy of failed governance given by the party which he now represents, has failed to reign in inflation. Now he says he has no magic wand. But then this people already knew, O learned one, did thou not know it when thou promised us with deadlines for inflation coming out twice. When he came out and made statement of CVC appointment, he claimed it was DOPT responsible, why can't CEO of Satyam claim that his CFO was responsible for all the mess?
His team got into act a day before the meeting of the PM with editors and they came on camera, in team. One spokesperson said, Prime Minister will decide when he wants to speak and what he wants to speak when questioned about rarity of his Public interfaces, other spokesperson was even funnier, when he decided to speak tangential to the questions asked stating that he will not be browbeaten to answer the new anchor's question, I was wondering if he will start singing some song next since he had decided that he will speak only what he pleased to speak about (thankfully, he didn't).
So the spokesperson says PM will speak to the nation when he wants to (four times in seven years) and the way he wants to and what he wants to (he may decided to even talk about giving cookery lessons, even when his ministers are spending retirements in the Jail on account of court actions). Then the PM says he meets the Congress president every week, thus making it clear, that contrary to what founding fathers of nation thought, he reports routinely to the person who actually made him the PM, not to the common masses who think they made him the PM. His mild manners disappears when he tells judiciary to stay within limits or CAG to stick to its limits.
He speaks to the nation and tells he was not aware of CWG bungling and the matters raised by ManiShankar Aiyar were merely ideological. Was he living in a different country then, do they not get newspapers in PMO and 10, Janpath and are they not watching News channels there? Thus the poor PM, bereft of any other mode of intelligence gathering, (possibly busy in collecting information about people who have recently caused them trouble, look around, the moment you are significant enough to cause significant trouble to significant few, skeletons start trembling out, ask Ramdev, Lalit Modi), was solely dependent on his minister to alarm him, who alas, provided, only ideological insights and therefore, the PM did nothing. It would be wrong to dismiss the PM as political novice, he understands it well when he says no one wants a mid-term election. One has to be blind to notice the temerity and tepidness with which the main opposition approaches the issue. Mani Shankar Aiyar comes out as the only main with clear sight and straight spine who speaks the truth. I would have loved to join a party in case this man decided to float it, alas, this is not to happen. He comes out to be too wise and too upright a man to be the prime minister in this country, such honesty makes one completely useless to people around. It still warms my heart to find that there are still men like Mr. Aiyar around.
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